


Dustin: the loyal friend

by stillusesapencil



Series: an aching kind of growing [5]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Character Study, Coming of Age, D&D, Dad!Steve, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, So Much Friendship, Steve Is a Good Bro, claudia henderson is amazing, dustin is my fave but this was hard to write, dustin loves his friends, the party is ride or die, until s3 i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-31
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-12-27 03:45:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18296174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stillusesapencil/pseuds/stillusesapencil
Summary: Dustin is not a hero, not the way that Mike and Lucas believe themselves to be. And he is not the bringer of wisdom, like Will. No, he is not a hero, but he is loyal. He is loyal and practical and stubborn, everything a good hero needs by his side. When he reads Lord of the Rings, Dustin sees himself in Sam. When he watches Star Wars, he sees parts of himself in Chewbacca and R2-D2. Dustin might not be heroic, but he is loyal.Dustin is the kid that agrees to come on the quest and fills his backpack full of food. They roll their eyes then, but when hours have passed and they are all hungry, they are grateful for it.





	Dustin: the loyal friend

**Author's Note:**

> *appears from behind a bush* Hiiii. sorry this took so long. Life has been hard and I've had writer's block. I know it's been like a year and I really am sorry. I hope this is enough to make up for it.

Dustin is small when his father leaves. And…that’s it, really. His father is there, and then his father is gone, and it’s just him and his mother. Dustin is the man of the house, and his mother is the woman of the house, and that’s the way it is.

Truth: People leave you. That’s just the way it is. 

When he is not much bigger, they leave his house and move to Hawkins. He leaves behind a small group of friends, who won’t remember him in a little over a year. They are young. They bounce back. 

In Hawkins, there are three boys, Mike, Will, and Lucas, and Dustin likes them. So he starts by stalking to them during recess, and then sitting with them at lunch, and then they are his friends. And he is theirs. 

Mike and Will are best friends—Dustin learns that very quickly. So he takes Lucas. Lucas is their third wheel, almost, a little left out, but no less loved. Dustin and Lucas start hanging out at Dustin’s house—his mom offers them fresh chocolate chip cookies—and at Lucas’ house, they watch movies. Erica likes to come “pester” them, but she never bothers Dustin. He listens to her stories about her princesses and she repays him with a sunshine smile, every once in a while.

Lucas shoves her out of the room, shouting for her to leave them alone, then leans his back against the closed door. “Sisters, man,” he says.

Dustin shrugs. “I like her,” he says.

Lucas looks a little weirded out, but they move on. 

(When they get older, Erica gives as good as she gets, and doesn’t let Lucas push her around any more. She dishes out sass relentlessly to all his friends, except Dustin. He gets the gentlest of her barbs.)

He discovers the Hawkins library early on, getting a library card and checking out the limit every week. In fifth grade, a thick book with a scaly red dragon draws his eye. _The Complete Dungeons and Dragons Manuel_ , it says, so Dustin promptly takes it home. He gives it a perfunctory read, and then takes it to his friends.

(Look, see? Look at my discovery!)

“Cool,” says Lucas.

“I know,” Dustin says proudly. “I was hoping maybe we could play.”

“Sure,” says Mike, taking the lead. “What are the rules?”

They take their time, unfolding the mysteries of the game. They roll up characters, and like most beginning D&D players, pick characters a lot like themselves. Will rolls up a wizard—quiet, reserved, but powerful and a bit magic. Mike chooses a paladin—strong, heroic, a bit stubborn. Lucas picks a ranger—a fearless warrior, just like in real life. (Dustin is still grateful for the time Lucas went after Troy with his slingshot.) 

And Dustin? Well, Dustin is the bard—a little weird, a lot loud, and fond of swearing. He works on musical and singing prowess, going so far as to sing in real life to help persuade the DM that he actually is casting very well. After his performance of _Eye of the Tiger_ , complete with violent air guitar and standing on Mike’s game table, Mike rolls his eyes, but Will offers polite applause. Lucas tugs him down by his sleeve, mumbling “Sit _down_ , will you, you idiot!” but then leans over to whisper in Dustin’s ear, “That was awesome, dude.”

“Damn right it fuckin’ was,” Dustin whispers back. 

And so it goes. They grow. They laugh. They play. They start an AV club; they get into trouble; and they stick together. That’s what friends do. 

Truth: Friends don’t lie. Friends don’t leave you. Friends stick together to the very end. 

By the time he’s twelve, he still doesn’t have front teeth. 

Dustin checks out every book in the library (well, five, there’s a limit) on bones he can find. He reads and he reads and he reads, and while he can tell you there are 26 bones in a human foot, and 33 bones in the spine, and the femur is the thickest bone and the thinnest bone is in the ear, there’s not a lot on missing teeth. 

So his mother takes him to the doctor, who sends him to a dentist, who sends him to another doctor, who sends them to _another doctor_ , one they have to drive several hours to reach. So Dustin packs his books in his backpack—an insect encyclopedia, a book of Greek myths, and a book on electrical engineering. 

“This is so heavy, Dusty,” his mother groans as she tosses it into the front seat early on the morning of their departure. 

“Mr. Clarke says that curiosity is a door and we should always open it.”

“Well, I’m glad, but you really don’t need all of them, surely?”

“I’m not keeping any curiosity doors locked.”

His mother sighs and shakes her head. 

The doctor calls it cleidocranial dysplasia, and says his teeth will come in eventually, just not yet. Patience.

That’s okay. Dustin’s good at patience. He knows how to settle down and _wait_. After all, he’s been waiting for his father to return for years. 

The boys are fine with it, although they can’t pronounce the words very well. They think it’s cool, almost like a mutation. And mostly, they forget about it. Teeth or no teeth, Dustin is their friend.

His mother gets him a cat. She takes him to the shelter and they pick out a sad looking orange cat and dub it, creatively, Mews. It just looked so pitiful sitting there, Dustin couldn’t resist. He’s always had an affinity for lonely things. 

Whether or not Mews is directly related to the missing teeth is up for debate, but if Dustin had to guess, he’d say that it might be. There are many things in Dustin’s life for which his mother feels guilty. The small house, the missing father, the tight budget. If a cat makes her feel less guilty about the teeth, so be it.

Dustin found her once, sitting at the kitchen table, crying. It wasn’t a big production, nothing showy or loud, but there were tears. He didn’t say anything, just padded into the kitchen, filled the kettle, and poured her a cup of tea. He poured himself a glass of milk, and they drank quietly, on either side of the table, as friends. 

Time passes. Dustin grows. 

There are Star Wars movies to see, more books to read, and games to play. D&D happens in Mike’s basement at least once a week, and one of the boys gets shoved by Troy and James at least once a week. Mr. Clarke teaches class, gives Dustin extra books to read, and smiles at him under his mustache. 

Dustin likes Mr. Clarke, likes the way his mustaches covers the corners of his smile, likes the way he makes science sound like an adventure, likes the way he makes curiosity become doors and brains become miracles. Once, as Dustin took his weekly extra book from Mr. Clarke, his teacher says, “You, Dustin, are like my explorer. My pioneer. Forging new paths for you and your friends.” He smiles, handing Dustin the book. “Enjoy your journey.”

Dustin grins brightly, dipping his head. “Thank you, m’Lord. I vow to journey well.”

Mr. Clarke smiles in return.

(The nickname stuck. Sometimes it annoys the teacher. Most of the time it does not. He was once a middle school boy himself, and he understands the necessity of fantastic world to escape the one which you are in.) 

Lucas and Dustin hang out a lot, and they write D&D campaigns together, or they chill out and read comic books, showing each other the cool panels, or the ones with neat colors. They read books—Lucas loans Dustin his copies of _Lord of the Rings_. 

“These are special. Please be careful,” he says, placing three creased books in Dustin’s ready hands.

Dustin nods, curls shaking. 

“They’re from my dad,” Lucas shrugs, then catches himself. Eyes wide he gives his head the tiniest shake. “I meant—that’s not—”

“Cool. I’ll be careful,” Dustin says, and offers a toothless grin.

Lucas grins back.

(If Dustin wishes that he had something of his dad’s, he doesn’t say it. When he finds an old trucker cap in the back of the closet that definitely isn’t his mothers’, he starts wearing it everywhere. It’s not _Lord of the Rings_ , but it works for Dustin.) 

Soon after he turns thirteen, Will disappears. And we know the story from there.

There is a monster, there is a girl, and there is a war. 

It’s easy, for Dustin to look at El and think, _friend_. It’s easy, for him to accept her. Lucas struggles, and Mike falls in love, but Dustin just sees a friend. Sometimes, it really is just as simple as that. 

When Lucas leaves them, it hurts Dustin far more than he lets on. Lucas, in a way, has been _his_ , in a way that Mike and Will never were. And yet, he choses Mike and El, because he believes in what El has to say. It rips him apart to make this choice. He hopes it’s the right one. And people leave. It’s just what they do.

There is the incident on the cliff, that Dustin almost never thinks about. It’s too much, too heavy, to think that Mike would have died for him that day had El not arrived. Mike already has his undying loyalty, and after that, Dustin can’t ever think of abandoning Mike, for any reason, ever.

At the end of the story, they are trapped in a bloody and dark classroom, and the lights are flashing, and then El is gone. 

Mike is broken, distraught. Will is back, but he is not the same. So Lucas and Dustin are left with each other, with only one another to hold them up. If they have nothing else, they have each other.

It’s fine, for them to talk about El and process it all together. They talk about her almost every day. Somehow, they know, they _know_ , she’s not gone. 

It’s fine, for them to take care of each other when Mike forgets them and Will can only take care of himself. 

It’s fine, for them to stand together while everything else falls apart. After all, that’s what they’ve always done. 

Lucas and Dustin go to Dustin’s house to plan a campaign, and it’s Dustin who says, “I miss her. El.”

Lucas nods. “Yeah. Me too. I just…wish I’d known her better.”

Dustin shrugs. “Yeah, Mike kinda hogged her.” 

And it goes like that. Dustin tells and retells the story of the quarry. They research together psychic powers and other dimensions. They try to find a way to get her back, but it all seems hopeless. But she was here, and she was important, and maybe if they talk about her enough, they’ll bring her back.

Summer passes. Fall returns. There’s a chill in the air, fear that he can sense. It’s like the whole world has gone tight, ready to snap. Mike and Lucas fight, and even Dustin is starting to get fed up. Will’s hands shake as he turns the pages of his homework, and Dustin is too tired to know what to do. 

When Max appears, she seems to Dustin the most beautiful spark of life he’s ever seen. She is brilliant and red and fire and _so_ not his. He and Lucas follow her around, and Lucas likes her, but so does Dustin.

It’s the first time he’s felt this way about anyone or anything. It’s new. Fascinating. Like a science experiment. 

And then there’s an actual science experiment. 

D’art comes to him like blessed relief, like a roller coaster, like a Trojan horse. Just this once he’d like something for his own. Just once. 

D’art is his discovery, his to keep, his to name and feed and study. He will not let anyone else have this, and he won’t give it up. D’art is just another lonely thing, and Dustin still has a weakness for loneliness. 

(Why, out of everyone, does Dustin pick Steve? Why this boy that didn’t really have a good name with the rest of the party? Why him?

Steve, too, lives in loneliness.)

He loves that creature, but it is suddenly more than he can handle. He doesn’t really remember leaving the basement. He remembers hissing “ _shit, shit, shit!_ ” over and over as he scrambles up the stairs and away. He radios—no answer, of course. Lucas is too busy with Max, Mike is too busy with Will, and Will is too busy being possessed to answer. Dustin guesses he can’t blame them.

He goes to the Wheeler’s, in hopes of finding Mike, but instead he finds Steve Harrington. Dustin doesn’t know it, but Steve is about to become his favorite person on the planet. 

It’s funny, how life does things like that. How the most popular boy at the high school is behind his house, poking the doors to his basement with a bat like that will do anything. They both went to find the Wheelers that day. They walked away with each other.

When they get to the basement, D’art has eaten his way through the wall, heading somewhere. Steve holds up the dripping shed skin and looks to Dustin. Dustin looks back blankly. “Holy shit,” he says, and Steve nods, echoing. “Holy shit.”

The next day, Dustin recruits Lucas (and by extension, Max) to help lure D’art to the junkyard. He and Steve spend all afternoon dropping cubed meat on the railroad tracks. He listens as Steve tells him about girls (just act like you don’t care!) and about the hair (four puffs of the Farrah Fawcett spray). 

_Friends._ Dustin thinks, as they toss another chunk of meat onto the tracks. _Steve is my friend._

They camp out in the bus, Lucas on top with binoculars. Lucas stands out front, and Dustin stays below. He shadows Steve’s shoulder, looking, searching.

The demidog won’t take their bait, and Steve squares his shoulders.

“Steve? What are you doing?” Dustin can see Steve gearing up for something, and he hopes it’s not what he thinks it is. He just _got_ Steve, and now Steve is leaving him too.

Steve holds up the lighter like the epic action hero he is, and says, “Just get ready.” 

Dustin swallows, and catches it when it’s tossed. His hands shake, but he squeezes the lighter in his palm.

“What’s he doing?” Max sounds equal parts annoyed and curious. 

“Expanding the menu,” Dustin says.

“He’s insane.”

“He’s awesome.” That is his belief, and he’ll stick to it. 

Then everything goes to shit. There are more demidogs than they thought, and while Steve is absolutely fuckin’ badass, their sacred bus fortress is invaded. Dustin screams frantically on the radio for help, for _God_ , even though he stopped believing in God years ago, along with Santa Claus and the Easter bunny. 

And then it’s over. The demidogs are called home. 

So, they do the next logical thing, and follow them. Steve takes the lead, Dustin at his side. Nancy and Jonathan are there, too, to everyone’s massive surprise, and then there’s a whole group, fighting off demidogs and then Bob is dead— _dead_ , but there’s no time for it now, because they have Will, except Something Else also has Will, and Dustin can’t really help right now because there’s just too much. 

Truth: Sometimes, it’s better to step back and let others lead. You do not have to be the most important. Most likely, you are not the most important. 

They start talking, planning, words flying fast. Hopper is exhausted and Jonathan is confused and Nancy looks so done with all of this. Mike gets an idea and starts pulling them along, just as he always has. Max slips right in, picking up what they’re laying down, and join the conversation. Steve…well, Steve tries, but he’s not part of the party. 

“Like the mind flayer,” Dustin says.

Everyone looks lost, but Lucas snaps his finger and points. Lucas gets it. Dustin really can always count on Lucas. Together he and Lucas find Will’s D&D book and turn to the appropriate page. He’s right, he can feel it. 

Hopper scoffs. “None of this is real, this is a kid’s game.”

Dustin straightens his spine. “No, it’s a manual? And it’s not for kids.” 

They’re still spitballing, working, Steve throwing in his clunky contribution, but Nancy is tracking. He’s always liked Nancy. 

(That time he offered her the last slice of pizza and she shut the door in his face? It wasn’t the first time. Most of the time, she accepts it. But as she got older, the door closed more often. Dustin and Nancy are not friends, no, but they aren’t on bad terms, either. They’re something else, something less than friends but more than acquaintances.) 

Even in the midst of all this, Dustin feels a tiny spark of joy, of excitement, at the way they’re all working together. This is what friends are for. 

They start figuring things out, and Will tells them to close the gate. Things are happening fast, too fast. As demidogs surround the house, their defenders stand ready. Hopper and Nancy with guns, Steve with his bat, Lucas with a slingshot, and Mike with a fucking trophy. Mike, always trying to be a hero. 

And then a miracle happens. El is back. She walks through the door, blood coming from her nose. She looks like death. She looks like hell. She looks fucking awesome. She reaches for Mike and he holds her so tightly. 

Dustin is so happy to see her. It’s a miracle, and he’s so glad. No one has ever come back like that before. He shows her his teeth, and he tells her how much he missed her. 

Just as fast, she’s gone. The rest of them are left behind. None of them can stand it.

Dustin does have the thought to put a dead demidog in the freezer. Maybe he’ll get to actually do some research. And get some credit. It’s a groundbreaking scientific discovery, and damn if Dustin isn’t going to open all the curiosity doors to that. They slam the door shut just in time, and Steve rubs his hand on Dustin’s hat. 

Affection. Friend. Brother. 

Truth: Friends come from unexpected places. 

And so they wait. Mike hatches their master plan, just as he always has. Dustin follows, and so do Lucas and Max.

Steve opposes, promising he’d keep them safe. 

The roar of Billy’s car sounds from the driveway. 

Steve sighs. “I’ll handle this.” 

They can’t not watch, that’s simply not happening, but it’s them that get Steve in trouble. 

Billy crashes into the house. Dustin’s heart hammers in his ears. This is so far beyond anything he knows. All he has known is love from his mother, his family. Billy is not like that at all. There is nothing Dustin can do as he attacks first Lucas and then Steve. He shouts, like it will help, but there is nothing, nothing—

Truth: Sometimes, the worse monsters are not things you can read about in books, or make up for games. They live just down the street and wear very pretty faces to hide horribly ugly hearts. 

Max saves them. Of course she did, of course she would. It’s in that moment that Dustin realizes she’s far too much for him. He still likes her, of course, but she doesn’t need him or want him, and so he lets it go. It’s a decision of a moment. 

They drag Billy into the yard, and then Dustin decides that Steve is coming along. They can’t leave him, not after all he’s done. He’s their friend, and no one is going to leave Dustin’s friend behind. He’s lived to long with people leaving him to commit the same sin now. 

Dustin grabs a box of bandaids and an ice pack, because it’s all he can think to do, and even Mike starts putting them on Steve’s face. 

Max gets them there. She’s driven before (in a parking lot. it counts.). It’s fine. Steve screams, but it’s fine. When they get there, their plan goes into motion. Scuba masks, bandanas, gas, the works. Steve shouts, but they keep working, moving around him as though he isn’t there. He’ll come around. 

(He does.) 

D’art comes back to Dustin in the tunnel. Dustin knows he can’t save him, he knows what’s going to happen, but he can’t resist saying goodbye. This is his creature, after all, his discovery. His first discovery. It’s important. So he says goodbye.

Steve hands him the lighter. His hands don’t shake. He knows what he has to do. 

In the end, all is well. They come out of it burnt and bruised and shaken and sore. But they come out of it with a new friend and an old friend returned and they come out of it with a Steve. A friend. A brother. A hero, at least in Dustin’s eyes. 

Dustin is not a hero, not the way that Mike and Lucas believe themselves to be. And he is not the bringer of wisdom, like Will. No, he is not a hero, but he is loyal. He is loyal and practical and stubborn, everything a good hero needs by his side. When he reads Lord of the Rings, Dustin sees himself in Sam. When he watches Star Wars, he sees parts of himself in Chewbacca and R2-D2. Dustin might not be heroic, but he is loyal. 

Dustin is the kid that agrees to come on the quest and fills his backpack full of food. They roll their eyes then, but when hours have passed and they are all hungry, they are grateful for it. 

He knows people think he’s dumb. (He’s not that stupid, to not notice, or to not care). He knows what people think, and sometimes he agrees. After all, it was pretty dumb of him to get involved with a monster from another dimension, and it was probably even dumber to house monstrous offspring in his home. 

_Well, I might be dumb, but at least I am kind._

He swears this to himself. That above all else, he will be kind. In the end, that’s all he can do, isn’t it?

He loves his friends, and he loves Steve. Steve is really and truly _Dustin’s_ , in a way nothing ever has been before. He starts coming over on Saturdays, helping Dustin fix the hole in the wall, and eating loads of his mother’s blueberry pancakes. He tells Dustin he’s never had pancakes like this before. Both Claudia and Dustin think that’s a crime and Claudia serves up another plate. Behind her back, Steve shoots Dustin a look that says, _How do I eat all this?_ Dustin grins and slides him the syrup.

Once the hole in the basement is fixed, Steve still comes over every Saturday. He mows their lawn, rakes leaves, snow shovels their sidewalk, trims the bushes, and eats everything Claudia Henderson offers him for breakfast. At Christmas, he and Dustin pick a Christmas tree, and with much struggling, pull it into the living room. Steve even gets the honor of helping decorate. 

Claudia pulls out sentimental ornaments, ones Dustin made years and years ago. Steve looks on with a kind of wistfulness, and then says to Claudia, “You know, I don’t think my mom has ornaments I made years ago. It’s really cool that you do that.” 

Claudia looks so completely affronted. “What do you put on your Christmas trees?”

Steve coughs and shifts in his seat. “Oh…mom usually tries to make the tree look really fancy, you know, ornaments and tinsel and shit—uh, stuff, ‘scuse me, Mrs. Henderon.”

Claudia shakes her head. Dustin looks from Steve to his mother and smiles. 

On the night of the snowball, Steve picks him up. He looks Dustin up and down, whistles, and motions for Dustin to spin. Dustin obliges, finishing off with double finger guns and sticking out his tongue.

“Almost perfect,” says Steve, and holds up a comb. 

At the snowball, no one will dance with him. _Is it my hair?_ he wonders. _Can’t be. Steve helped me._ Four puffs of the Farah Fawcett spray, a ton of gel, and emergency styling in Steve’s car, and he was ready to go. Still, the girls wrinkled their noses and rolled their eyes. Changing his hair and putting on a suit did not change the fact that they still see him as the dumb boy without front teeth.

He sneaks away to the corner of the bleachers to sniffle a bit and let a few stray tears run down his cheeks. He tried so hard. 

And it’s not like he’s alone-alone—no, he has his friends, but Mike has El and Lucas has Max and even Will got asked to dance. And Dustin is left alone, again. No matter how much you love your friends and how much they love you, it still hurts to be the only one alone.

But suddenly Nancy is there, extending a soft hand. 

He’s always liked Nancy. She, too, is loyal. Loyal, determined, smart. Something about her has always resonated with him. Perhaps he admired her. 

“Girls this age are…dumb.” She rolls her eyes, knowingly, a little regretfully. “But give them a few years and they’ll wise up. You’re gonna drive them nuts.”

Dustin can’t hide his grin. “You think so?”

“Oh, I know so.” 

He wonders briefly if it’s a betrayal to Steve, to dance with Nancy, but something tells him it’s not. Steve would understand.

The girls on the side stare, perhaps in shock, or awe. He hopes they’re wondering how he managed to score a dance with Nancy Wheeler, heartthrob of the high school. What qualities he must possess to gain him such favor. 

But things rarely go as we dream, and he only dances twice more that night. But in the end, it’s all right. He has his friends—and really, shouldn’t that be enough?

Truth: Friends are incredible, but that doesn’t stop you for wishing for just one person who’s special, sometimes.

(He also sneaks away from the dance to steal some of the good chocolate pudding for El to try, and Mr. Clarke catches him, but he just smiles, takes a carton, winks at Dustin, and pretends he never saw.)

After new years and school starts again, Dustin and Max start coming to Steve’s basketball games. Sometimes it’s just the two of them, and sometimes it’s the whole party, but Steve is never without his cheering section. Max doesn’t know a lot about basketball, surprisingly, so he helps her, giving her rules. Sometimes he goes to fast and she has to stop him.

“Slow down,” she says, rolling her eyes. “You’re getting excited. Give me a minute to catch up.” And then she smiles and he smiles back and is so glad she’s his friend. Being in the friendzone can’t be all that bad. After all, who doesn’t want more friends?

The winter is very cold, so weekends are filled with D&D campaigns. Dustin invites Steve, and Lucas invites Max, which makes Mike roll his eyes. But Mike is healing, too, just like the rest of them, and he doesn’t fight them. And, with some time, he welcomes them.

(Steve really, truly, sucks at D&D. Dustin still thinks he’s amazing in his own way.)

Dustin begs and cajoles Steve into driving the party places while it’s cold. He and Max always scuffle for the front seat, and sometimes they squeeze together, and sometimes Steve swats them away and offers the front seat to Will. He calls them all “lil shits,” and there is no trace of actual anger in his voice. He drives them to the arcade, to others’ houses, to most any place they ask. 

Still, Dustin keeps parts of Steve for himself. Hanging out on Saturday morning, their very long complicated handshake, their occasional movie nights were Steve passes out on the couch and snores all night—those he keeps for himself. 

Steve graduates in the spring. Claudia leads a small army of middle schoolers, dresses in their very best, to a row in the school gymnasium as Steve walks the platform. The Party leaps to their feet, shouting his name and screaming, but none louder than Dustin, who jumps up and down and pumps his fist. 

Steve gets a job at Hammonds, flipping burgers. Dustin goes and steals extra fries and reads at the counter. Steve still comes over on Saturday mornings, but he passes out on the couch more often than not, now, and most of the time he smells like fast food grease. He’s tired, and he doesn’t really want to live in Hawkins any more, and Dustin knows, and he’s grateful that Steve chooses to stay.

(Later, Hopper will offer him a desk job on the police force. Steve will accept.

Dustin will show up and ask, “So does this mean that you’re a real officer now?” and Steve will shake his head and Dustin will say, with a smirk, “Too bad you can’t arrest me then.”

“For what crime?”

“For the crime of being this awesome!”

Steve chases him out of the building, but not before Dustin steals a doughnut.)

Summer is Dustin’s favorite season. Summer means camp and fireworks and swimming and cookouts and sun and no school. He helps Steve clean out the pool, and Steve has them all over, and they spend many happy afternoons getting burnt and tanned and pruny in the water. 

Will starts to uncurl that summer, like a plant when it first blooms and turns to the sun. Dustin probably isn’t the first to notice, but he is glad. He and Will spend many happy hours playing video games or reading. They get on an X-men kick that summer, and spend many happy hours reading in Castle Byers. Will is quieter now, after everything, but he is still Will, under all of it. And he’s getting better. Dustin is glad. It’s the first time they ever talk about their fathers. Not much is said. But they are the same in this. 

After the first few months of Lucas dating Max, things are weird. Dustin doesn’t know how to be friends with his best friend and his best friend’s girlfriend, and he doesn’t want to intrude, and he doesn’t want to be a third wheel, but he and Lucas get the hang of it. Eventually. Lucas has a set weekly date with Max, but he and Dustin hang out just as often to plan D&D campaigns or play at the arcade. Sometimes, he hangs out with them both, and learns that being a third wheel doesn’t have to be awkward if you love both people. It’s just like hanging out with any other friends. 

Truth: Your best friend can still be your best friend, even when things change.

At first, El can’t spend a lot of time with them. Hopper is still anxious, but they go to Hopper cabin often enough. She starts getting to join D&D, and she slowly becomes more of a real person, and less of a super awesome Yoda-like thing. 

They play games a lot—card games and board games and sometimes video games. When she wins, Dustin declares that she used her mind powers and she laughs and swipes her clean upper lip to prove there’s no blood. They also read together quite a bit. Sometimes in her favorite tree outside Hopper’s house, or on the couch. He tells her about his favorites and she listens with rapt interest before asking to borrow. When she can get out more, he promises to take her to the library. 

Dustin knows she has dark things go on in her mind. But she doesn’t tell him, and he doesn’t ask. But that’s okay. Sometimes you don’t have to know all the deep dark stuff to be friends. Sometimes you just have to eat cookies and talk about Star Wars. (Yes, El, you’re like Yoda. Yes, Yoda is pretty cool. Yes, we can watch it again.)

And about Mike. Mike has been through a lot. He’s angry and aching and tired. But it was Mike that told him ages ago that you can have more than one best friend.

_Logic says you can have only one best friend._

_Well I call bull on your logic._

Mike might be angry and sharp sometimes, but he still loves his friends. He is still loyal. Dustin is loyal, too, no matter how much he hurts. 

When Mike tells him, slowly, haltingly, about the emptiness inside of him, the exhaustion and sadness, Dustin gets it.

“It’s called depression,” he says. “I read about it.”

Mike first looks confused, then relieved. “Oh.”

“There’s ways to treat it,” Dustin says. “You can go to see a counselor or take medicine. Or get more exercise. Or take vitamin D. Or meditate and do yoga and shit. There’s a lot of ways to help. Here, let me show you.”

They bike to the library and Dustin finds some psychology books and some self-help books. It’s not much, but it’s a start. 

Mid-summer, Mike’s dad leaves and things start changing for them. Mostly Holly starts coming around more often. Dustin doesn’t mind. He likes Holly. He’s always liked kids. 

On the fourth, the Byers throw a party, and the whole group is there. Steve, Hopper, Nancy, assorted parents. Jonathan and Steve carefully set up the fireworks in the front yard. Dustin plays tag with Will and Holly, and all of them are sweaty and laughing by the time Hopper calls them over for burgers and hotdogs. 

After the sun sets, they settle down on the lawn for the fireworks show. Steve only gets burnt once, which might be a record, and no one can harass them for having fireworks during a near-drought because the police chief is there. 

Life is good.

Truth: It takes bad to appreciate the good. 

Dustin is happy, content. 

He has been called many things in his life. Dusty, by his mother; shithead, by Steve; friend, by many. 

Toothless, fatherless. But not friendless. Never friendless. And when you have friends, who needs anything else?

His father is never coming back. Dustin stopped waiting years ago, even though he still wears that hat and sometimes wonders what his dad looked like. But he has learned that people leave, but people also stay. His mother has never gone anywhere, and she’ll never go anywhere. He’ll always have her.

He’ll have his friends, too, as they go to high school and beyond. But that’s far way. What matters now is Will, growing and smiling and relaxing, color returning to his cheeks and to the pages on which he draws. It’s Max, no longer angry or fighting, just laughing and unafraid and confident. It’s Mike, knitting himself back together, breathing deep again. It’s El, using her powers to levitate objects for laziness’s sake, and giggling at the latest joke. It’s Lucas, still his companion to the end, forever understanding and fist bumping and teasing. It’s Steve, rumpling his hair and calling him a dork, teaching him carefully how to drive, and still eating stacks of his mother’s pancakes. 

Dustin knows himself. He is kind, before anything else, and loyal after that. He loves his friends, and they love him. He’s not going anywhere. And neither are they.

Truth: Sometimes people leave. But more often, they stay.

**Author's Note:**

> Dustin is my favorite. I wish I could have done him better in this. He really needs more love, poor boy. 
> 
> I swear I'm going to finish El's piece before the new season comes out. It's about halfway done.


End file.
